New York Yankees' Derek Jeter once again forced to deal with an Alex Rodriguez mess

Noah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerDerek Jeter found himself in the media spotlight Wednesday, but it had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with Alex Rodriguez.

COMMENTARY

TAMPA, Fla. -- He sat in the front row, his face expressionless and his hands folded in his lap, as his train wreck of a teammate chiseled away another piece of the Yankees mystique he helped build.

If only somebody could have placed a giant thought bubble over Derek Jeter during the Alex Rodriguez press conference Tuesday. Can you imagine what would have been inside it?

The image of his hands wrapped around the third baseman's neck? An empty beach on a far away island? The smiling face of Scott Brosius?

"I was thinking just how difficult it must have been," Jeter said Wednesday afternoon as he sat in the dugout at George M. Steinbrenner Field -- which, of course, was the perfect Jeter answer.

"It was uncomfortable for everybody, you know what I mean?" he said. "People do things wrong, but when you have to sit there and address so many people, it's an uncomfortable feeling."

So one day after A-Rod told the world about his dumb cousin providing him with steroids, it was Jeter's turn to address the issue. Somehow, every time the third baseman does something stupid, like some mixed up Abbott & Costello routine, it becomes about the shortstop.

Somehow, each word Jeter utters on the topic will be carefully scrutinized, each fist bump closely watched, as if the way he treats this cheater is a referendum on his leadership.

As if he did something wrong.

It is patently absurd, but Jeter manages to take it in stride. Jeter used to show up at spring training and talk about defending a World Series championship. Now he talks about A-Rod.

Maybe this is fitting. The Yankees belong to Rodriguez now more than they do Jeter. A-Rod is the one with the contract that runs another nine years, while Jeter completes his in 2010. A-Rod is the chosen cornerstone, while Jeter awaits his future.

If any of this drives Jeter nuts, he doesn't let it show. Two springs ago, it was Rodriguez admitting to the world that their relationship had cooled. This time, Jeter answered questions for 28 minutes and not one was about himself -- unless the issue was how he planned on treating you-know-who.

"I don't condone what he did -- Alex doesn't condone what he did," Jeter said. "At this point now, it's our job to make him feel as comfortable as we can on the field and help him move past it."

Jeter was criticized a week ago because, after a workout at the minor-league complex, he didn't want to address the mess A-Rod had gotten into. Would you? Would anyone?

He knew he'd have plenty of chances to do that. He was essentially a pinstriped prop at the press conference to support a teammate he probably does not believe and almost certainly does not like, because doing anything else would be perceived as a betrayal of his captaincy.

A-Rod messes up, and almost immediately, the issue becomes about his relationship with Jeter, as if hugs and high-fives from the shortstop can make all the problems go away.

"People are going to have opinions about what our relationship is, no matter what I say or no matter what he does, people are going to say what they want," Jeter said. "I get tired of hearing it."

Jeter is also tired of hearing the words "Steroid Era" used to describe this generation in baseball. He is presumably one of the hundreds of players who continued on a steady -- and clean -- level in their careers, resisting the temptation to turn to a needle for an "energy boost," as A-Rod called it.

Jeter never had to use "young and naive" as an excuse for injecting something illegal into his body. His father Charles was a substance abuse counselor who, along with his mother Dorothy made sure Jeter knew better than to consider any shortcuts in life.

"Everybody was making a big deal about the list -- 104 players -- but how many players are in the league? I think it sends the wrong message to baseball fans. I think it sends the wrong message to kids.

"When you do some things," he said, "eventually the truth comes out, one way or another."

It came out for A-Rod a few days before spring training, and like always, Jeter was left to sort through the details. He said he believed his teammate's story and gave him the benefit of the doubt. He said he was disappointed but made sure to add that everyone else was, too.

Near the end of his interview, Jeter was asked what it was like to watch Rodriguez sit silently for those 37 seconds as he tried to compose himself before addressing his teammates.